MITT 2014: unknown Italy, exotic islands and Russian regions

On March 19-22, 2014 the 21st international exhibition MITT/Travel and Tourism will take place in the Central Exhibition Complex Expocentre. The organizer of the event is ITE group of companies.

During the last two decades MITT has joined top five largest travel exhibitions and has become the main event of our travel industry. Every year new destinations and travel products are presented at MITT by more than 1800 exhibitors from 85 countries. 74% of visitors are industry experts.

Leading DMCs and representatives of the foreign travel industry come to MITT to announce new programs and prices. Our national travel destinations are widely represented at the exhibition; their expositions are traditionally formed with the participation of regional authorities of the federal subjects of Russia. Particular attention at MITT is paid to promotion of incoming and domestic travel.

In 2014 the status of partner region that was introduced at MITT for the first time was granted to the Altai region. March 19th was announced Altai Region Day at MITT. During the day you will be able to participate in quizzes and lotteries at its exhibition stand, the presentation «Travel facilities of the Altai region» is to be held in the conference hall. A large scale presentation of travel companies, health resort institutions, folk crafts and eco-travel facilities will be available all these days.

This year Krasnodar region has considerably increased its presence at the exhibition, a separate exposition is presented by Sochi — the capital of the XXII Winter Olympic Games.

According to expert data, the number of foreign tourists who visited Russia in 2013 grew by 10%, the number of Russians travelling about our country grew by 6-8%, and the number of those going abroad on holiday increased by 15%.

In this connection the increase in the number of international MITT visitors and the amount of exhibition space of foreign participants looks quite logical. 14 countries and regions will present their national exhibitions for the first time — Algeria, Bangladesh, Brazil, Cambodia, Laos, East Timor, Cape Verde, Mozambique, Peru, Iceland, Micronesia. The Balearic Islands, the Canary Islands and the Azores, as well as the Island of Micronesia have participated in the exhibition for the first time. After several years of absence tourism offices of Indian states of Kerala and Karnataka, as well as offices of Albania and Nicaragua have returned to the exhibition. Traditional MITT participants are Greece, Spain, Croatia, Cyprus and Romania, they have considerably increased their stand sizes, and DMCs Mouzenidis and Biblio Globus that offer various destinations of outcoming travel have increased their stands three times. In general, the space of foreign participants of MITT increased by almost 1000 sq. meters.

Travel experts should pay special attention to the national stand of Italy, which is MITT partner country this year. According to the director of the Moscow office of the National Agency of Tourism of Italy (ENIT) Domeniko Di Salvo, during the Russian-Italian bilateral year of tourism apart from traditional types of sightseeing, summer and winter tourism Russian tourists will be offered new interesting programs of healthcare, active, gastronomic, pilgrimage, business and event travel. In the opinion of Mr di Salvo, the status of the partner country of the exhibition, first of all, facilitates promotion of the outstanding artistic and historic heritage of small travel centres and towns, as well as presentation of unknown Italy and regions hidden from the mass traveller to Russians.

MITT 2014 will occupy 9 exhibition halls and pavilions of Expocentre. The total exhibition area will amount to more than 55 thousand sq. metres. The exhibition will traditionally include the following sections: «Healthcare Travel», «Russia» pavilion with a separate section for Russian hotels and accommodation facilities and «Informational Technologies in Tourism».

This year MITT will include a new topic of the year and a new section that will work on March 19-21 — «Meeting industry/MICE» devoted to professional arrangement of business events. Due to the new specialized section corporate buyer representatives will have an opportunity to meet experts in business event arrangement all over the world. The general sponsor of the section is ASAP transportation company. The partner of the section is Active MICE Mouzenidis Group that will present its facilities in business event arrangement and incentive tours to Greece to the representatives of MICE-agencies and direct customers. The strategic partner of the «Meeting industry/MICE» section at MITT is the Russian Association of Business Travel (ABT).

During the «Meeting industry/MICE» section on March 21-22 the Russian Meetings Industry Forum will be held for the first time, it is the first business event of the industry aimed at promoting congress services in Russia, as well as at increasing the level of knowledge in the field of event arrangement. During the Forum Russian and foreign experts will cover a wide range of topics — from basic aspects of meeting arrangement and creative approach to business to fund raising and return on investment, the aspects of cooperation with a professional service agent and many others. The general sponsor of the Russian Meetings Industry Forum is ExpoForum-International.

On March 19th Moscow Medical and Health Tourism Congress will start its work, it is a representative event where experts will discuss trends and prospects of healthcare travel and service development. Grekomed (Mouzenidis Group) has become platinum sponsor of «Medical Tourism» section of MITT this year.

On March 20th one of key events of MITT will be held during the business program — 6th Moscow International Business Travel Summit, organized with the participation of the Russian Tour Union. This year the Summit will include topics like «Travel business under the pressure of Internet bookings: how to benefit from this situation». Leading travel experts will speak about benefits of trip planning through travel companies and discuss possible risks travellers face when booking tours themselves. Participants will also discuss development prospects of the travel market and new services travel companies are ready to offer in order to keep their clients. The moderator of the event is press secretary and presidium member of the Russian Tour Union, Irina Turina.

The special session «MITT Summit Hotel» will be included into the program of the summit for the second time. The program of the session lets participants get comprehensive information during a short period of time on the most urgent aspects of hotel industry — from management issues to basic housekeeping principles. The partner of «MITT Summit Hotel» business session is ABT.

MITT/ Travel and Tourism is held with the support of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Council of the Russian Federation, the Committee on Culture and Information of the State Duma of the Russian Federation, the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation, Moscow Committee on Travel and Hospitality Industry, Consumer Market Development Committee of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation, the Russian Geographical Society, Moscow State Duma and the Russian Tour Union. Official sponsors of the international MITT 2014 exhibition are TUI, Maxx Royal, Voyage, Chateau Maison Noble. The sponsor of «Informational technologies in Tourism» section is HRS. (www.mitt.ru)